I recently had a chance to get an interview with Hans Tobeason about Freedom. Here is the excluive first part of the interview. Be sure to check back soon for the second part. This interview was completed on April 13, 2001 so this is recent and the most up to date discussion anyone has had with Hasn Tobeason. He is a great guy, especially for his time, as we both did this interview for all of you Freedom nuts. Enjoy...

RMA: Do you have any favorite episode(s) of Freedom?

Hans Tobeason: Not really. I think some work better than others. I am kind of partial to the original pilot (not Alpha Dogs) - but that's probably because it was closest to my original concept for the show.

RMA: What is the story about the original pilot being pushed aside in favor of the one we all saw? And what was it about?

Hans Tobeason: The original pilot started similarly, with our guys being sent to the Hole,but in the original, our Team was already a Team - special forces. They got out of the Hole faster, and then went on a different mission. UPN had one big problem with the original - they didn't think the actor cast as the lead (Decker, though his name was Cally Beach in the original) worked. So we had to recast. Then UPN said, hey, we're reshooting anyway, why don't you just rewrite the whole damn thing. The new pilot (Alpha Dogs) was not as good as the original in many ways, but hey, that's TV.

RMA: Do you keep in touch with any of the cast and crew of the show?

Hans Tobeason: Absolutely. I'm in regular touch with Scarlett and Bodhi. Scarlett's doing another UPN pilot right now. The idea sounds pretty stupid, but you never know. Darius is off shooting some kind of vampire movie in Mexico. I'm out of touch with Holt.

RMA: Thank you for your time Mr. Tobeason. Is there anything you'd like to say to the fans?

Hans Tobeason: Only that I (and my staff and cast and crew) appreciate having someone, even if only a relative few, appreciate what we work so hard to create. You have no idea how much effort goes into the process of making a TV show. It is truly overwhelming most of the time. As nice as it is to see the finished product, and be happy with it, it is very cool to get positive responses from people who are taking the time out of their days to make the effort. Thanks.

Interview with Hans Tobeason Part One

RMA: Is there still a chance UPN could bring back the show or could it come back on another network?

Hans Tobeason: No and no.

RMA: Could there be a chance for Freedom to return in another form like a tv movie, feature film, mini-series or possibly comics, books, or a dvd of two episode pinned together like a movie?

Hans Tobeason: Extraordinarily unlikely.

RMA: If the show could continue where would you like to take the show? Did you have any long term goals? Or any particular stories you wanted to tell?

Hans Tobeason: We had all sorts of interesting ideas worked out. Unfortunately, UPN didn't like most of them, as they were interested pretty much in stunts and breasts. We were going to nuke Mt Rushmore, for example. We were going to discover that the President was not dead. Lots of other cool stuff.

RMA: Was there every any scenes cut from the episode for time or anything that you would like to have seen in the episode?

Hans Tobeason: This happens all the time, so often, in fact, that I cannot possibly remember any particular instances.

RMA: What was it like behind the scenes of Freedom?

We had a great crew up in Vancouver. The production was tough, though - grueling and exhausting. Unfortunately, I didn't get to spend enough time up there as I was overwhelmed trying to manage the political fires down in LA. We had our usual personality conflicts and other upsets. But, on the whole, we did ok.

RMA: When Freedom first came out one magazine said Lance Henrickson was to be a recurring character on the show, is that true? If so, what happened?

Hans Tobeason: Lance played a character in the original called Mr Young. That character morphed into General Young in Alpha Dogs. Frankly, Lance was too expensive for us, so we cast Georg Stanford Brown who was excellent, in my opinion. I was dying to have his character recur, but we could never get UPN to agree to a story.

You may NOT reproduce or redistribute in any shape, way or form, any excerpt of this interview without my expressed written permission.